Bradley Cooper to Team with Steven Spielberg for the First Time on New Take of Steve McQueen's Legendary Character from 'Bullitt'

 

by Darian Scalamoni

    It was just a few years ago that Oscar-nominated actor Bradley Cooper was courting offers from tons of directors such as Adam McKay, Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino before settling on two films that released last year and were nominated for Best Picture at the Academy Awards. Cooper selected the lead role in Guillermo del Toro's Nightmare Alley and a small, supporting role in Paul Thomas Anderson's Licorice Pizza. Following the success of his own directorial debut, A Star is Born, Cooper was highly coveted and now, he's about to work with the most famous filmmaker of all-time. 

    According to Deadline, Bradley Cooper will star in the latest film from Steven Spielberg which will be a new original take on the legendary character Frank Bullitt played by Steve McQueen. The report details that the movie is not a remake of the original film, Bullitt, but a completely new idea that is centered around the character from the 1968 crime thriller. In the original movie, Bullitt is a sensible police officer from San Francisco who's on the hunt for a mobster that killed one his witnesses in a case he's on. The role is one of the more quintessential roles of McQueen's career, so it's interesting that someone of Spielberg's stature would want to recreate the character for an actor such as Cooper. Having said that, this is an all-star pairing and continues Cooper's streak of working with some of the best working directors in Hollywood. The film will be written by Josh Singer, who previously penned Spotlight and The Post.

    The report also notes that the development of this project has been in the works since the COVID-19 pandemic. Spielberg and Cooper have been trying to work together ever since American Sniper, a film for which Cooper earned his third and fourth Oscar nominations, which eventually was helmed by Clint Eastwood. After that partnership fell through, Spielberg reached out to Cooper to direct his Leonard Bernstein biopic, Maestro, which Cooper eventually obliged. Following his performance and achievement in directing A Star is Born, Spielberg thought that after years of developing Maestro but maybe not having the time to direct himself, he handed the film off to the multihyphenate. Spielberg is currently on a press tour for his semi-autobiographical film, The Fabelmans which stars Paul Dano, Michelle Williams and Seth Rogen coming off of the heels of his incarnation of West Side Story which released in 2021.

    What do you guys think about this blockbuster news of Bradley Cooper working with Steven Spielberg on a new take on Bullitt? Do you think this is the right project for Spielberg to direct Cooper? Let us know in the comments!